One day in Rome, then the flight to the USA. Training at the Olympic Training Centre Giulio Onesti in Acqua Acetosa on the pitch named after Gianluca Vialli and the press conference from Luciano Spalletti came a few hours ahead of the departure for the USA. There, Italy will play friendlies against Venezuela (Thursday at 22:00 CET) and Ecuador (Sunday at 21:00 CET). The Head Coach spoke: “We will be welcomed warmly by our compatriots to whom we owe a lot. They are there to work and they have opened up new borders and connections for us. These two games will allow us to organise something from a tactical point of view. Will we see Chiellini and Cannavaro in the USA? We’ll take something from them and try to instill it in our players, like sowing a seed…”.

Francesco Acerbi will not take part in the trip following the decision in light of events at San Siro yesterday evening in the game against Napoli. Spalletti said: “My thoughts are contained within the official statement. I would never want to be in this position, but we have the responsibility to an important sport and our nation. From what Francesco told me, though, it was not an incident involving racism, you need to be careful when making such accusations. We saw Francesco uneasy about the situation and it is unpleasant to make this decision from a human point of view, but we need to be aware of our behaviour”.

Many more players will get their chance, who Spalletti wants to evaluate ahead of the European Championships scheduled for June in Germany, such as Udinese striker Lorenzo Lucca, who received his first call up to the national team. "I want to see up close what he's made of," - the coach said regarding the forward. "Those who stayed at home must not feel like victims of failure; on the contrary, it is important that our players continue to show their quality. Immobile? I realise he is a big player for his club and the national team. Recently, he hasn't been able to express his potential and I think that at this moment in time it is right to choose others. This also goes for Scamacca: when he's been with us, he hasn't expressed the best of himself, when you should immediately need to give the impression of being part of the national team."

With Lucca, the other newcomers to the squad are Raoul Bellanova and Michael Folorunsho: "No-one's spot should feel secure in this national team. From my point of view, it is obvious and necessary to know that there are players who are emerging. We must be ready to welcome these lads with open arms, just as we must consider footballers who show us how the attacking phase can also lead them to cover different roles. The wingers, for example, are increasingly making internal movements: this is now the new trend in European football."

Spalletti put focus on other individuals, starting with a rediscovered Lorenzo Pellegrini: "We've waited a long time for him, I've never had him available. He's a footballer whose level is easy to evaluate: he is capable in many different things. I don't know what will happen, but he is one of those you can count on. He had issues and has put them right: with the quality that Daniele De Rossi wants at Roma he looks to be at ease there right now." De Rossi, whose work is being greatly appreciated by Spalletti: "I have taken a lot of what he has done in this period. He seems a bit like Carletto Mazzone to me, when he expresses being part footballer and part coach. He is doing an exceptional job because it isn't easy in such a short space of time. I wish the best to those who made everything they had available to me." Among those of De Rossi's Roma is also Gianluca Mancini, who has been called up to replace Acerbi: "He plays inside, he slots in, I see him involved in the buld-up phase and then I see him in the opponent's area, too. The fact that I hadn't called him is not a negative on his part, but because I know very well what players like Mancini, Politano and El Shaarawy, to provide other examples, can give."

Spalletti could also have taken plenty of young players from the Under-21 national team, involved in European Championship qualifiers. "But let's not go to war with Nunziata, who is a coach part of our staff and Club Italia," the gaffer commented. "I could have brought Calafiori or Fabbian, but I'm not going to take players away from a national team that will play official matches. Just as I don't go into battles with clubs, for example with Roma in the case of Cristante, who needs to stop to treat a back problem."

In America, there is the possibility of testing a three-man defence: "But I think that football is a fluid thing, not rigid. You can move from one system to another, I want to evaluate this 3-4-2-1, it will depend on the characteristics of those who play. We have the possibility, by changing something, to be more surprising." It's a system that can maximise players like Chiesa ("He gets past men, knows how to score goals, can pass into situations that others see impossible") or like Frattesi ("for his intensity and quality, he is someone who knows how to attack the defensive line like few others").

Closing out on the routines of the players at camp: "It's during the 22 hours when we're not on the pitch that shows what level we are at. I don't care whether they play the PlayStation or not, I'm interested in whether they go to sleep at a certain time. If you go and disturb what your profession is, I'll get involved and I don't like that. I don't tie footballers to a contract: anyone who doesn't want to come to the national team or uses their time doing activities that create addiction can stay at home." 

SQUAD LIST

Goalkeepers: Marco Carnesecchi (Atalanta), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Alex Meret (Napoli), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham);
Defenders: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Raoul Bellanova (Torino), Alessandro Buongiorno (Torino), Andrea Cambiaso (Juventus), Matteo Darmian (Inter), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Gianluca Mancini (Roma), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta), Destiny Udogie (Tottenham);
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Giacomo Bonaventura (Fiorentina), Michael Folorunsho (Verona) Davide Frattesi (Inter), Jorginho (Arsenal), Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma);
Forwards: Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Lorenzo Lucca (Udinese), Riccardo Orsolini (Bologna), Giacomo Raspadori (Napoli), Mateo Retegui (Genoa), Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio), Nicolò Zaniolo (Aston Villa).